War Movies
by Veritas_Lux_Mea | created - 26 Apr 2012 | updated - 18 Jan 2020 | PublicWar is hell but it does make a pretty incredible setting for a film....
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1. Cross of Iron (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, War
German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner
Votes: 29,161
2. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,384 | Gross: $28.90M
3. The Great Escape (1963)
Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Votes: 258,873 | Gross: $12.10M
4. Castle Keep (1969)
R | 107 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his remote 10th Century castle hoping a battle there against the advancing Germans will not lead to its destruction and all the heritage within.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Patrick O'Neal, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Peter Falk
Votes: 3,484
5. Bitter Victory (1957)
Approved | 82 min | Drama, War
A commander receives a citation for an attack on Erwin Rommel's headquarters, which is actually undeserved, as the commander is unfit for his job. On top of that, unbeknownst to him, his wife is having an affair with one of his officers.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Richard Burton, Curd Jürgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin
Votes: 2,292
6. The Longest Day (1962)
G | 178 min | Action, Drama, History
The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda
Votes: 59,061 | Gross: $39.10M
7. Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Not Rated | 167 min | Drama, History, War
A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews
Votes: 17,799 | Gross: $11.12M
8. The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
Approved | 131 min | Action, Drama, History
Norwegian resistance tries to stop German efforts to produce an atomic bomb component during World War II.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 8,064
9. The Night of the Generals (1967)
Not Rated | 148 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In 1942, a Polish prostitute and German Agent is murdered in Warsaw. Suspicion falls on three Generals, and Major Grau of German Intelligence seeks justice which ends up taking decades.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence
Votes: 8,771
10. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War
Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 62,896
11. The Devil's Brigade (1968)
Approved | 130 min | Action, Drama, War
A US Army lieutenant colonel is tasked with forming an elite commando-style unit from crack Canadian troops and the dregs of the US Army.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: William Holden, Cliff Robertson, Vince Edwards, Andrew Prine
Votes: 6,252
12. Hell in the Pacific (1968)
G | 103 min | Adventure, War
During World War II, an American pilot and a marooned Japanese navy captain are deserted on a small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. There, they must cease their hostility and cooperate if they want to survive, but will they?
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Lee Marvin, Toshirô Mifune
Votes: 9,056
13. The Bridge at Remagen (1969)
R | 115 min | Action, Drama, War
As the Allied armies close in, the Germans decide to blow up the last Rhine bridge, trapping their own men on the wrong side. But will it happen?
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman
Votes: 10,544
14. Battle of Britain (1969)
G | 132 min | Action, Drama, History
In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Curd Jürgens
Votes: 24,509 | Gross: $4.36M
15. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,208 | Gross: $29.55M
16. Catch-22 (1970)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, War
A man is trying desperately to be certified insane during World War II, so he can stop flying missions.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel
Votes: 26,500 | Gross: $24.91M
17. M*A*S*H (1970)
R | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, War
The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and high jinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman
Votes: 76,920 | Gross: $81.60M
18. Patton (1970)
GP | 172 min | Biography, Drama, War
The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong
Votes: 107,944 | Gross: $61.70M
19. Kelly's Heroes (1970)
GP | 144 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
A group of U.S. soldiers sneaks across enemy lines in WWII France to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor
Votes: 53,696 | Gross: $1.38M
20. Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
R | 111 min | Drama, War
During World War I, a patriotic young American is rendered blind, deaf, limbless, and mute by a horrific artillery shell attack. Trapped in what's left of his body, he desperately looks for a way to end his life.
Director: Dalton Trumbo | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards
Votes: 18,349 | Gross: $0.55M
21. Midway (1976)
PG | 132 min | Action, Drama, History
A dramatization of the battle that was widely heralded as a turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford
Votes: 21,488
22. MacArthur (1977)
PG | 130 min | Biography, Drama, History
Biopic of General Douglas MacArthur covering his war exploits during WW2 and the Korean War.
Director: Joseph Sargent | Stars: Gregory Peck, Dan O'Herlihy, Ed Flanders, Ivan Bonar
Votes: 5,119
23. A Bridge Too Far (1977)
PG | 175 min | Drama, History, War
Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier
Votes: 61,524 | Gross: $50.80M
24. The Deer Hunter (1978)
R | 183 min | Drama, War
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
Votes: 362,155 | Gross: $48.98M
25. Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
PG | 118 min | Action, Drama, War
During World War II, several oddly assorted military experts are teamed in a mission to raid and destroy a bridge vital to enemy strategy.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Harrison Ford, Robert Shaw, Edward Fox, Franco Nero
Votes: 19,751
26. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 710,078 | Gross: $83.47M
27. The Big Red One (1980)
R | 113 min | Drama, War
A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco
Votes: 21,390
28. Platoon (1986)
R | 120 min | Drama, War
Chris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David
Votes: 439,457 | Gross: $138.53M
29. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
R | 116 min | Drama, War
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin
Votes: 790,303 | Gross: $46.36M
30. A Midnight Clear (1992)
R | 108 min | Drama, War
The Ardennes Forest, December 1944. A squad of six US infantrymen is sent to occupy a house to use as an observation post as the German Army is expected to advance through that area. However, the Germans seem oddly friendly.
Director: Keith Gordon | Stars: Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Arye Gross, Ethan Hawke
Votes: 9,789 | Gross: $1.53M
31. The Thin Red Line (1998)
R | 170 min | Drama, History, War
Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Kirk Acevedo
Votes: 199,581 | Gross: $36.40M
32. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,496,242 | Gross: $216.54M
33. Three Kings (1999)
R | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, four soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who desperately need their help.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze
Votes: 180,443 | Gross: $60.65M
34. Black Hawk Down (2001)
R | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of 160 elite U.S. soldiers who dropped into Mogadishu in October 1993 to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, but found themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily armed Somalis.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana
Votes: 423,533 | Gross: $108.64M
35. Jarhead (2005)
R | 125 min | Biography, Drama, War
A psychological study of Marine's state of mind during the Gulf War. Told through the eyes of a U.S. Marine sniper who struggles to cope with boredom, a sense of isolation, and other issues back home.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black, Scott MacDonald
Votes: 206,507 | Gross: $62.66M
36. The Hurt Locker (2008)
R | 131 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce
Votes: 473,726 | Gross: $17.02M
37. Fury (2014)
R | 134 min | Action, Drama, War
A grizzled tank commander makes tough decisions as he and his crew fight their way across Germany in April, 1945.
Director: David Ayer | Stars: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña
Votes: 547,050 | Gross: $85.82M
38. The Odd Angry Shot (1979)
Unrated | 92 min | Action, Comedy, War
In between drinking cans of Fosters beer, Australian soldiers tread on a few landmines, and generally experience the war in Vietnam.
Director: Tom Jeffrey | Stars: Graham Kennedy, John Hargreaves, John Jarratt, Bryan Brown
Votes: 1,335
39. The Long Day's Dying (1968)
R | 95 min | Drama, War
The saga of three British soldiers and their German captive as they trek through the European countryside.
Director: Peter Collinson | Stars: David Hemmings, Tony Beckley, Tom Bell, Alan Dobie
Votes: 531
40. Paths of Glory (1957)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, War
After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready
Votes: 212,229
41. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
R | 121 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In 1965, an unorthodox and irreverent DJ named Adrian Cronauer begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the U.S. Armed Services radio station in Vietnam.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Tom T. Tran, Chintara Sukapatana
Votes: 153,773 | Gross: $123.92M
42. The Train (1964)
Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Thriller, War
In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.
Directors: John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon
Votes: 18,874 | Gross: $7.41M
43. Stalingrad (1993)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, War
The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph
Votes: 37,711 | Gross: $0.08M
44. The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1988)
R | 97 min | Action, Drama, War
A tough U.S. sergeant and his sidekick roll into a demoralized firebase, where they attempt to rebuild morale and fortifications amid a climactic battle with the Viet Cong.
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith | Stars: Wings Hauser, R. Lee Ermey, Robert Arevalo, Mark Neely
Votes: 3,341
45. Off Limits (I) (1988)
R | 102 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
McGriff and Albaby are probably doing the worst law enforcement job in the world - they are plain clothes U.S. military policemen on duty in war-time Saigon. However, their job becomes even... See full summary »
Director: Christopher Crowe | Stars: Willem Dafoe, Gregory Hines, Fred Ward, Amanda Pays
Votes: 3,431 | Gross: $7.24M
46. The Boys in Company C (1978)
R | 125 min | Drama, War
In 1967, five young men undergo boot camp training before being shipped out to Vietnam. Once they get there, the experience proves worse than they could have imagined.
Director: Sidney J. Furie | Stars: Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, James Canning, Michael Lembeck
Votes: 3,518
47. Streamers (1983)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, War
Four young soldiers waiting to be shipped to Viet Nam deal with racial tension and their own intolerance when one soldier reveals he's gay.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell Lichtenstein, David Alan Grier
Votes: 2,123
48. We Were Soldiers (2002)
R | 138 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War, and the soldiers on both sides that fought it, while their wives wait nervously and anxiously at home for the good news or the bad news.
Director: Randall Wallace | Stars: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott
Votes: 151,244 | Gross: $78.12M
49. American Sniper (2014)
R | 133 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner, Cole Konis
Votes: 529,173 | Gross: $350.13M
50. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
R | 145 min | Biography, Drama, War
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava
Votes: 115,924 | Gross: $70.00M
51. Hamburger Hill (1987)
R | 110 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A very realistic interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
Director: John Irvin | Stars: Anthony Barrile, Michael Boatman, Don Cheadle, Michael Dolan
Votes: 27,952 | Gross: $13.84M
52. Battleground (1949)
Approved | 118 min | Action, Drama, History
True tale about a squad of the 101st Airborne Division coping with being trapped by the Germans in the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy
Votes: 7,863 | Gross: $10.29M
53. Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
R | 114 min | Drama, War
During the early 1960s, U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam discover the same challenges that plagued the French army in Indochina ten years prior.
Director: Ted Post | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Marc Singer
Votes: 3,078
54. Dunkirk (2017)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Drama, History
Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy
Votes: 739,979 | Gross: $188.37M
55. 1917 (2019)
R | 119 min | Action, Drama, History
April 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Daniel Mays, Colin Firth
Votes: 675,454 | Gross: $159.23M
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